Podcasts about michael koresky

A new book explores the perseverance of queer cinema between the 1930s and 1960s, when Hollywood was subject to the restrictive Motion Picture Production Code, otherwise known as the Hays Code. Michael Koresky, author and editorial director for the Museum of the Moving Image, joins us to discuss Sick and Dirty: Hollywood's Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness.

Ep. 328: Michael Koresky on his new book Sick and Dirty: Hollywood's Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness - The Children's Hour, These Three, Tea and Sympathy, Dance Girl Dance, and more Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. I was a huge fan of Michael Koresky's last book, Films of Endearment, and so I leapt into action when I heard about his latest, Sick and Dirty: Hollywood's Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness. Koresky is now Senior Curator of Film at Museum of the Moving Image, and, as he points out, his book has roots in his column I had the privilege of editing at Film Comment, Queer and Now and Then. I spoke with him about some pivotal titles in his deeply researched chronicle of under-the-radar queer cinema from the 1930s to the 1960s, and the fascinating work that could emerge under Hollywood's censorship regime: These Three and The Children's Hour, two adaptations of Lillian Hellman's play, both directed by William Wyler; Dorothy Arzner's Dance, Girl, Dance; Vincente Minnelli's oft-maligned Tea & Sympathy; and more. “Sick and Dirty: Hollywood's Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness” by Michael Koresky is available now, published by Bloomsbury. On June 22, Tea & Sympathy will screen with Koresky in conversation at the Museum of the Moving Image as part of a special book event. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

In honor of guest Michael Koresky's new book announcement, we're revisiting this conversation with him from last summer about Steven Spielberg's A.I.Michael's new book, Sick and Dirty: Hollywood's Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness, will be out from Bloomsbury in June.---Reverse Shot⁠ co-founder and editor, and Editorial Director at Museum of the Moving Image Michael Koresky joins us to proselytize Steven Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001). Michael takes us back to being an intern in 2001, watching A.I. six times in theaters, how both Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick do “sentimentality with a point,” Jude Law's dialogue, parables of loss, and how this “unexpected sledgehammer” of 00s' filmmaking sticks with him today. --The Bright Wall/Dark Room Podcast is co-hosted by⁠ Veronica Fitzpatrick⁠ and⁠ Chad Perman⁠ and produced and edited by⁠ Eli Sands⁠. Our theme music is composed by Chad. You can find all 135+ issues of Bright Wall/Dark Room online at⁠ brightwalldarkroom.com⁠. We're on Bluesky at @bwdr and @bwdrpod, and welcome feedback and inquiries at ⁠podcast@brightwalldarkroom.com⁠.--This episode is sponsored by Galerie, a new kind of film club. BW/DR listeners can now enjoy 3 months of free access to Galerie by signing up ⁠⁠here⁠⁠.

On December 12, 2024, as part our annual winter list extravaganza, Film Comment Editors Clinton Krute and Devika Girish led a panel of special guests—Molly Haskell (critic, author), and Michael Koresky (critic, founding editor of Reverse Shot)—for a live real-time countdown of the films topping our year-end critics' poll. The evening featured a lively discussion (and some hearty debate) about the films as they were unveiled—and now it's here in Podcast form, for your home-listening pleasure. Consider it a holiday gift from us to you, our loyal listeners. Read the full list, plus Best Undistributed Films, individual ballots, and more, at filmcomment.com/best-films-of-2024

Back from vacation with our summer blockbuster episode: author, Reverse Shot co-founder and editor, and Editorial Director at Museum of the Moving Image Michael Koresky joins us to proselytize Steven Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001). Michael takes us back to being an intern in 2001, watching A.I. six times in theaters, how both Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick do “sentimentality with a point,” Jude Law's dialogue, parables of loss, and how this “unexpected sledgehammer” of 00s' filmmaking sticks with him today. For more, read story writer Ian Watson's account of working with Kubrick and Michael's Reverse Shot co-founder Jeff Reichert on “the desperation underlying much of human love.”  The Bright Wall/Dark Room Podcast is co-hosted by Veronica Fitzpatrick and Chad Perman and produced and edited by Eli Sands. Our theme music is composed by Chad. You can find all 130+ issues of Bright Wall/Dark Room online at brightwalldarkroom.com. We remain on Twitter @BWDR and @TheBWDRPodcast, and welcome feedback and inquiries at podcast@brightwalldarkroom.com. This episode is sponsored by Galerie, a new kind of film club. BW/DR listeners can enjoy two months of free access by signing up ⁠here⁠. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/bright-wall-dark-room/support

Ep. 207: Michael Koresky and Jeff Reichert on Reverse Shot at 20 Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I'm your host, Nicolas Rapold. The wonderful film publication Reverse Shot celebrates its 20th anniversary of existence this year. Since I first wrote for Reverse Shot early in my career, it's always held a special place in my heart, and it's still going strong -- a gladdening beacon in the landscape of film criticism (and of critics, with an enviable roster of sharp voices and alums). I sat down with the co-founders of Reverse Shot, Michael Koresky and Jeff Reichert, at MOMI to discuss how it all began, go through highlights from the eventful past 20 years, and (in an unpredictable lightning round) a few personal favorites of theirs. Koresky and Reichert's biographies besides RS extend to filmmaking (such as American Factory, co-produced by Reichert, and Feast of the Epiphany, co-directed by Koresky, Reichert, and Farihah Zaman), books (including Koresky's Films of Endearment), and more. MOMI's anniversary program of Reverse Shot events continues this weekend with screenings of Terence Davies's The Deep Blue Sea, and other rarely screened films in the coming weeks. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 155: Snubbed! with Michael Koresky, Eric Hynes, and Edo Choi Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I'm your host, Nicolas Rapold. This month the Museum of the Moving Image starts the series “Snubbed: Great Movies, No Nominations.” The rules are simple: very fine films that were ignored, overlooked, or snubbed (if you will) by the Academy. For this episode I'm joined by the delightful series co-programmers: Eric Hynes, curator of film at MOMI; Michael Koresky, co-editor of Reverse Shot; and Edo Choi, associate curator at MOMI. Each chose a couple of films to represent the varieties of snubbage that occur when the Oscars and the history of great movies fail to intersect. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Music: “Tomorrow's Forecast” by The Minarets, courtesy of The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass

In his new book Films of Endearment, filmmaker and critic Michael Koresky revisits the important and popular female-driven films of the 1980s he grew up watching with his mother—9 to 5, Terms of Endearment, The Color Purple, and Aliens, to name a few—to trace out a poignant personal history of family, grief, and resilience. Mark Harris (Pictures at a Revolution) joined Koresky at Greenlight for a conversation that spanned women in film, queerness, the art of criticism, and the enigma of how we form our tastes and identities in relation to the characters we love on- and offscreen. (Recorded May 18, 2021)

A Mother, a Son and the '80s Films That Defined Us.

Iconic musician Sergio Mendes is the subject of a new documentary currently on PBS called "Sergio Mendes & Friends: A Celebration". Both Mendes and his director John Scheinfeld ("Herb Alpert It..") are on the podcast. Also, author & film critic Michael Koresky discusses his new book "Films of Endearment: A Mother, a Son and the '80s Films That Defined Us" currently available for purchase.

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. For his new book, Films of Endearment, critic Michael Koresky (Reverse Shot) watched 10 movies from the 1980s with his mother, a fellow movie lover. This simple premise becomes a way to talk about the decade's bounty of great acting by women and reflect on the many facets of his mother's life and their relationship together. Michael makes it look easy as he mingles film criticism, family biography, and social history, with his characteristic insight, sensitivity, and knowledge of film history. For this episode, Michael is joined by critic Molly Haskell, whose influential body of work has spanned The Village Voice, New York magazine, and Vogue, and includes the landmark critical work From Reverence to Rape. It's a wonderful pairing of sensibilities and enthusiasms for the work of these actresses, spanning films from 9 to 5 to Mommie Dearest to Crossing Delancey. You can support this podcast and read show notes with links at: rapold.substack.com Opening music: “Monserrate” by The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, a podcast where we reach out to friends to talk about what we've been watching. It's as simple as that. Joining Nicolas Rapold this time are critics Amy Taubin and Michael Koresky. This time of year, our heads are usually full of brand-new movies from film festivals, which are a good way to preview fall releases as well as titles that might otherwise be hard to see. We talked about a number of films including: American Utopia, Spike Lee's movie of David Byrne's Broadway show; Sam Pollard's documentary MLK/FBI, about the FBI's relentless surveillance of Martin Luther King; Regina King's One Night in Miami, which dramatizes the meeting of four great historical figures in 1965; and a French comedy that plays out in a prison, The Big Hit, directed by Emmanuel Courcol. Finally, because we just couldn't help ourselves, we talked about Lovers Rock, actually the opening night selection of The New York Film Festival. Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Critics Amy Taubin and Michael Koresky join Nicolas Rapold to discuss their recent favorites, including The Fabulous Baker Boys (and Michelle Pfeiffer's star presence), Damien Chazelle's new Netflix series The Eddy, and much more. Original music by Nate Kinsella Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Today we continue our special homebound version of the podcast, as we all do our best to stay connected and stay sane. As before, we're talking about what we've been watching and how being stuck at home is leading us to try some new movies as well as return to comfort food. We hope you enjoy our latest selection, and we'd love if you watched along with us—you'll find links below to titles under discussion. For our latest episode, I'm joined by Soraya Nadia McDonald, culture critic for The Undefeated and contributing editor to Film Comment, and by Devika Girish, our assistant editor. On this episode, we discuss Kathleen Collins's Losing Ground, Matt Wolf's Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project, Thomas Heise's Heimat Is a Space in Time, Legally Blonde, and Whatever Happened to Interracial Love? Also, a special treat: If you listened to the last episode, you'll recall our own Michael Koresky promising some new music for the podcast. He came through with a dramatic performance of Michel Legrand's “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?”, which you can hear on today's intro.

“NO NEW ‘MOVIES' TIL INFLUENZA ENDS“ read the October 10, 1918, headline in The New York Times, during the global flu pandemic one century ago. Then as now, theaters nationwide were temporarily closing, leaving moviegoers without any movies to go to. “WE MISS OUR MOVIES” went another newspaper headline that same October, atop an article that marveled at the impact of this young popular art form: “In a few years, and so gradually as to be almost imperceptible, the custom of watching them has grown upon individuals of all mentalities to a greater extent than they realized until they suddenly were deprived of them.” The “movies” are a bit more familiar now, but we're definitely feeling deprived of moviegoing, the community that cinemas provide, and, well, just plain getting out of the house and seeing people. So we've begun our Film Comment Podcast at Home series, gathering together (remotely!) to talk about the movies we're watching at home. While we can't do anything about the stir-craziness, or the dread, we can at least share movies and keep each other company. Without further ado, please enjoy our latest installment, where I'm joined by Film Comment critical stalwart, Michael Koresky, and my editorial colleagues at the magazine, Devika Girish and Clinton Krute. We hope you'll follow along and watch with us. On this episode, we discuss Desperately Seeking Susan, After Hours, Columbo, The Big City, Stuff and Dough, The Green Fog, Vertigo, Crimes of the Heart, The Truth, If We Say That We Are Friends, Ridge and more.

Last fall saw the release of Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story, which joins a long tradition of marital dramas while adding its own fresh sense of candor. After featuring the film in our September-October 2019 issue, we immediately thought, why not invite married couples on the podcast to talk about movies about marriage? We're calling the series Marriage Stories, and the results have been wonderfully illuminating conversations freely weaving together critical and personal experiences across a wide selection of movies. For this special Valentine's Day episode of Marriage Stories, Film Comment Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold sat down with Chris Wisniewski, who wrote an essay on film education for FC last fall, and FC regular Michael Koresky. Be sure to look out for more Marriage Stories coming soon to The Film Comment Podcast.

Uncut Gems, directed by Josh and Benny Safdie, and starring Adam Sandler, is a full-throttle portrait of a diamond dealer in New York's Diamond District. It's been a wild success since it opened in December, and in our November-December issue, Michael Koresky wrote about the movie, praising how the Safdie brothers “capture the bustle and pace of rapid-fire economic exchange, filtering it through an increasingly panicky wild ride.” The neighborhoods of New York are central to the energy of Uncut Gems (as well as their previous films like Good Time). So we decided to invite Josh and Benny Safdie to chat about New York movies. Film Comment contributor Nick Pinkerton sat down with the filmmakers at Film at Lincoln Center, to talk about New York on screen and which particular movies influenced their vision of their hometown.

Welcome to another episode in our Decade Project series where we look back at the past 10 years and talk about our favorite filmmakers, major changes and trends, and the movies that made a difference. This week, we're talking about acting and performance in the 2010s—actors that made their mark, and tendencies we've noticed. Joining Film Comment Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold are Michael Koresky, Film Comment regular, and Shonni Enelow, a Fordham professor and Film Comment contributor who wrote about a certain restrained acting style that's taken shape for our September-October 2016 issue.

It's that time of year again! Film Comment has made a list and we've checked it twice: the best films of 2019, chosen through a poll of our contributing writers. And according to our new annual tradition, we announced the results live at a special Film Comment Talk. This year, Film Comment Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold was joined to unveil and discuss the films by Amy Taubin, longtime contributing editor at Film Comment; Soraya Nadia Macdonald, who writes for The Undefeated and is a contributing editor at Film Comment; Michael Koresky, all around Film Comment all-star; and Devika Girish, assistant editor at Film Comment. You can read the full Best of 2019 list online, including best unreleased films, and don't forget to follow along with our special podcast series The Decade Project, about the 2010s. But now, our Best Films of 2019 countdown.

By any measure, the 2010s have been a confusing and turbulent and also exciting time. That goes for both movies and the world at large, and that's saying a lot after the 2000s. At Film Comment, part of our goal is to offer a critical chronicle of the movies as they're happening, putting things in historical perspective, pointing out the bold and the beautiful in the art and craft of film, and hopefully offering an insight or two along the way. That's often hardest to do with contemporary history, and so to grapple with the 2010s, we're starting a series of Film Comment podcasts we're calling The Decade Project. We'll look at the movies from different angles and do our best to map out a vivid but often hard to characterize time. This week, we'll talk about some of the major shifts and changes that happened over the last ten years, and some of the decade's pivotal movies. It's also an opportunity to talk about the big picture in movies, which probably means having a healthy skepticism about thinking in terms of decades altogether. Joining FC Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold for this discussion are longtime contributing editor Amy Taubin; FC regular Michael Koresky, who is co-editor of the Reverse Shot book, Martin Scorsese: He Is Cinema; and Nick Pinkerton, who's written a number of essays for us looking at the big picture. Stay tuned for more of The Decade Project with guests Ashley Clark, Sheila O'Malley, Andrew Chan, Molly Haskell, and more. Let's go to the beginning of our conversation.

Martin Scorsese's new film The Irishman has been out in theaters since the beginning of November, which you probably know unless you've been hiding under a rock (or were buried under Giants Stadium). Scorsese's story follows the life of mob fixer Frank Sheeran and his close relationship with mob boss Russell Bufalino and Jimmy Hoffa, the Teamsters leader. The movie's release is the perfect time to talk about Scorsese and his work, and explore exactly where The Irishman takes us. Film Comment Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold is joined by Shonni Enelow, associate professor at Fordham University and author of Method Acting and Its Discontents; Molly Haskell, critic and author whose books include From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies and Steven Spielberg: A Life in Films; and Film Comment regular Michael Koresky, co-editor of the Reverse Shot book, Martin Scorsese: He Is Cinema.

Horror movies are the usual choice for Halloween viewing. But we here at Film Comment got to wondering: what are the scariest movies that are not horror films? There are many ways a movie can get under your skin, and it's not always through gore or the supernatural. To discuss this notion, FC Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold got together with Film Comment regular Michael Koresky and Ashley Clark, senior repertory programmer at BAM. Each chose one or two movies (including Cabaret, Bamboozled, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day) that frightened them but don't fall into the horror genre, leading to an intriguing discussion of how movies get under your skin. And sleep tight!

At Film Comment, we love it when we get behind a movie and then see other movie-goers share the love. Parasite, the funny and fierce thriller from Bong Joon Ho, was on the cover of our September-October issue, but wasn't released in theaters until mid-October. But what a release! Audiences are packing the theaters. To talk about the movie's appeal and Bong's masterful filmmaking, FC Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold sat down with contributing editor Amy Taubin, who wrote out September-October feature on Parasite, and FC columnist and critic Michael Koresky. And don't miss the essay on Parasite by Midsommar filmmaker Ari Aster, also available in our latest issue.

For the festival's final week, contributing critics and editors gather together for a spirited discussion with Film Comment‘s Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold about the movies they've seen in the NYFF57 lineup. Panelists include programmer and FC contributing editor Nellie Killian; Michael Koresky of Film Comment and Reverse Shot; Amy Taubin of Film Comment and Artforum; and critic Phoebe Chen. The panel discusses Kiyoshi Kurosawa's To the Ends of the Earth, Bertrand Bonello's Zombi Child, Pedro Costa's Vitalina Varela, Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story, Kelly Reichardt's First Cow, Eloy Enciso Cachafeiro's Endless Night, among many others.

One of the highlights of the fall, and this year's New York Film Festival, is the new film by Pedro Almodóvar, Pain and Glory. Our new September-October issue features an essay by Michael Koresky about the film and it's fearless autobiographical story. Koresky writes, “There has been no clearer onscreen representation of the filmmaker's essence than the main character of Pain and Glory, played with exquisite middle-aged restraint by Almodóvar's longtime muse, Antonio Banderas.” To discuss the director, his new film, and his beloved career, Film Comment Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold sat with Koresky and Film at Lincoln Center's Eugene Hernandez. Also: pick up the new issue of Film Comment to read Koresky's essay as well as an article by Almodóvar himself about the literary inspirations behind his cinematic achievements.

For our third roundup of all the on-screen goings-n at TIFF 2019, Film Comment Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold sits down with critic and FC contributor Michael Koresky and Justin Chang, film critic for the Los Angeles Times, to discuss Waves, Jojo Rabbit, Africa, Two of Us, Uncut Gems, Marriage Story, Saturday Fiction, Color Out of Space,and others.

Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood is the subject of the cover story for our July-August issue. Tarantino's latest made a splash at the Cannes Film Festival, and now it's finding great success in theaters. All of that despite being a change of pace for the director. The film is set in the twilight period of 1969, in a small world of Hollywood actors, bit players, and movie and TV productions, alongside more fringe elements of society represented by the Manson Family. Though the specter of the murderous cult leader lurks throughout, Once Upon a Time is a largely affectionate movie, with a lot of room to hang out in, and terrific actors to hang out with: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, and Margot Robbie, among others. To discuss the film, Film Comment Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold sat down with Michael Koresky, longtime FC contributor and co-editor of Reverse Shot, and Maddie Whittle, programming assistant at Film at Lincoln Center. Listeners beware: in order to talk about the movie's accomplishments and significance, we do talk about the story in full, including parts of the plot that have, to date, been kept under wraps.

One of summer's most anticipated films is Midsommar, from filmmaker Ari Aster. The director joined us last summer for a talk at Film at Lincoln Center to discuss his previous feature, the unforgettable Hereditary, and we were delighted to welcome him back for another Film Comment chat on Tuesday, July 10. In front of a packed house, Aster sat down with author and Film Comment mainstay Michael Koresky for a discussion about his Swedish countryside-set horror film, working with star Florence Pugh, and favorite movies such as 45 Years. Also, listen up for a few details on the forthcoming director's cut of Midsommar, and don't forget to read about Aster's inspirations for the film in the July-August issue of Film Comment.

A big part of Film Comment's mission is to bring well-informed insights and original voices to the rich heritage of movies. One beautiful example of this is our regular column, Queer & Now & Then, written by Michael Koresky. With every column, Michael picks a single movie from a specific year for a discussion in terms of queerness, as part of what he calls, “a conversation with himself and the movies.” For our latest Film Comment roundtable talk at Film at Lincoln Center, we invited several critics to join Michael for a talk about the interconnections between their experiences and memories of movies and their sense of identity. This podcast is record of this insightful, funny, and candid conversation between Koresky, Melissa Anderson of 4Columns, best-selling author and critic Mark Harris, Wesley Morris of The New York Times, and filmmaker and critic Farihah Zaman.

In her feature on Joanna Hogg's The Souvenir in the May-June issue of Film Comment, Sheila O'Malley writes,“The autobiographical origins of The Souvenir are obvious (Hogg doesn't try to hide them), yet she allows for free-floating associations, creating a kind of space where connections are possible, where there can be a wincing kind of recognition, a remembrance of first love and first heartbreak. The response is a not always comfortable: ‘Yes. My God, I know that. That is so true.''' The film, a self-portrait of the artist as a young woman, is a complex and multi-layered exploration of first love, heartbreak, creativity, family, and class. Film Comment Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold sat down with O'Malley (also author of the FC column Present Tense) and FC contributor and columnist Michael Koresky to discuss the The Souvenir and how Hogg's previous films Unrelated (2008), Archipelago (2010), and Exhibition (2013) inform her latest.

In our March-April issue, Michael Koresky writes about history of a movie magazine with a humble name: Films and Filming. Koresky writes about the importance of this long-defunct publication as both a classic movie journal and a cultural phenomenon for gay readers. He writes, “Our culture instills mighty shame in us for knowing what we want, and that shame has long been magnified to the point of obscenity even stigma, when that desire is gay. The shamelessness of the magazine's appeal, and the way it so rudely bound sexual desires to movie love, felt like a rich, purposeful affront.” Jumping off from this feature, Koresky joins Film Comment Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold for a wide-ranging discussion of the role of desire in our love of movies. We were delighted to also bring in Aliza Ma, programmer at Metrograph, and Andrew Chan, Web Editor at the Criterion Collection.

All too often, the ritual of ranking films at the end of the year leaves a lot of worthy movies on the cutting floor. Some don't receive enough votes to make our Best of 2018 list; others maybe don't leap to mind when weighing the artistic strengths and weaknesses of movies. So now that you've read about the best of 2018, we present the rest of 2018—a few films that we enjoyed but that, for one reason or another, didn't crack the hallowed top 20. Editor-in-chief Nicolas Rapold talked with Michael Koresky, editorial and creative director at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, and two colleagues in FSLC Programming, Maddie Whittle and Tyler Wilson.

Every year we send out a poll to our critics and staff and put together a list of the best movies of the year. For 2018, we did something a little different and fun: we counted down the best movies of the year at a live Film Comment Talk at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Along the way, Film Comment editor-in-chief Nicolas Rapold discussed the results with a group of all-star critics: Molly Haskell, critic and author; Michael Koresky, director of editorial and creative strategy at the Film Society of Lincoln Center; and Sheila O'Malley and Nick Pinkerton, also frequent Film Comment contributors.

Cinema and ghosts both offer the promise of life after death. On the latest Film Comment Podcast, just in time for Halloween, we talked about the fascinating role ghosts play in movies. We start with the 1940s, when ghosts seemed to exert a special hold on Hollywood cinema of wartime and postwar era. From there, it's off to the spooky races, all the way up to the 1970s and Personal Shopper and (the great) beyond. For this haunting discussion, I was joined by Imogen Sara Smith, critic and author of our Phantom Light column; and Michael Koresky, director of editorial and creative strategy at the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

Toward the end of the New York Film Festival, our all-star team of Film Comment contributors came together to talk about the highlights. It was the third and final Film Comment Talk during the festival (following our Cinema of Experience event and our Filmmakers Chat, coming soon). You'll hear all about Yorgos Lanthimos's The Favourite, Barry Jenkins's If Beale Street Could Talk, Claire Denis's High Life, Alex Ross Perry's Her Smell, the new Orson Welles reconstruction The Other Side of the Wind, and more. Film Comment Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold was joined by Molly Haskell, author of the foundational text From Reverence to Rape and a Yale University monograph of Steven Spielberg; K. Austin Collins, film critic at Vanity Fair; Eric Hynes, film curator at the Museum of the Moving Image; Michael Koresky, the creative and editorial director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center; and Aliza Ma, head programmer of Metrograph.

“In their films—especially Barton Fink, The Man Who Wasn't There, No Country for Old Men, A Serious Man, and Inside Llewyn Davis—there's always the sense that the deck is stacked against us and that we're the authors of our own misery, a doubly discomfiting, Camusian view that perfectly matches their aesthetic approach, an overwhelming omniscience that results in a kind of bravura melancholy,” Michael Koresky writes in his feature about Joel and Ethan Coen's The Ballad of Buster Scruggs in our September/October issue. This week, Koresky, FSLC Editorial and Creative Director, moderates a special Film Comment Podcast featuring three more Coeniacs in conversation about the brothers' dazzling 30-year-plus body of work, from greatest hits to lesser-known ballads: K. Austin Collins, film critic at Vanity Fair; Aliza Ma, head of programming at Metrograph; and Adam Nayman, Toronto-based critic and author of the new book The Coen Brothers: This Book Really Ties the Films Together (Abrams). The Ballad of Buster Scruggs screens on October 4 and 9 in the New York Film Festival and opens in November. And look out for our Film Comment Talks during NYFF: the Cinema of Experience on September 29, our Filmmakers Chat on October 7, and our critics' Festival Wrap about festival highlights on October 10.

Our Toronto 2018 podcast series comes to a close as our group gabs about Olivier Assayas's garrulous Non-Fiction, Alex Ross Perry's Her Smell, Ho Wi Ding's Cities of Last Things, and more. Guests include Aliza Ma, head programmer at Metrograph; Eric Hynes, curator of film at Museum of the Moving Image in New York and Film Comment columnist; leading Toronto critic Adam Nayman, a Cinema Scope and Reverse Shot contributor; and Michael Koresky, Director of Editorial and Creative Strategy at Film Society of Lincoln Center. Back to New York!

The Toronto hit parade continues with another podcast from the festival formerly known as the Festival of Festivals. I brought together even more hearts and minds this time for another spirited chat: Aliza Ma, head programmer at Metrograph; Eric Hynes, curator of film at Museum of the Moving Image in New Yorkand Film Comment columnist; Nick Davis, a Film Comment contributing editor and professor of film, literature, and gender studies at Northwestern University; and Michael Koresky, director of editorial and creative strategy at Film Society of Lincoln Center. We discussed High Life, If Beale Street Could Talk, The Crossing, American Dharma, and In Fabric.

This week on the podcast, the re-release of Terence Davies's first full-length film, Distant Voices, Still Lives, in a new restoration, has our guests reminiscing about great debut features throughout cinema. After discussing Davies's 1988 masterpiece, the group goes on to talk in detail about some great first features to careers that either took off or were frustratingly cut short, including a trio of Ter(r)ences and Lynne Littman. Joining in the discussion were frequent Film Comment contributors Ina Archer, media conservator at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture; Michael Koresky, the Director of Editorial and Creative Strategy at the Film Society of Lincoln Center (and author of the University of Illinois Press book Terence Davies; and critic and FC contributing editor Nick Pinkerton.

This week on the podcast we head back to the summer of 2001. These days, the feeling of waiting for the other shoe to drop has become a way of life, though at the time that summer, we were blithely seeing movies without knowing what was to come. It was the year of Mulholland Drive but also of Rush Hour 2, a year of shifting gears into a new decade, and a formative time for many of us at the magazine. In our free and easy late-summer discussion, we've tried to capture what was special about the movies we were seeing at that moment, even though some of us can't believe the movies we were seeing at that moment. For this trip down memory lane, I was joined by Aliza Ma, head programmer at Metrograph in New York, and Michael Koresky, the editorial and creative director at the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

In his essay “Responsibilities of a Gay Film Critic”—first published in the January/February 1978 issue of Film Comment—Robin Wood wrote: “Critics are not, of course, supposed to talk personally. It is regarded as an embarrassment, as bad taste, and besides it is an affront to the famous ideal of ‘objectivity.' . . . Yet I believe there will always be a close connection between critical theory, critical practice, and personal life; and it seems important that the critic should be aware of the personal bias that must inevitably affect his choice of theoretical position, and prepared to foreground it in his work.” Michael Koresky, Director of Editorial and Creative Strategy at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, invoked this landmark essay during a talk at the RiverRun International Film Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where he was joined by K. Austin Collins, critic at Vanity Fair, and filmmaker and critic Farihah Zaman. Addressing representation in recent films like Love, Simon and Call Me by Your Name, the process of identification, and the absence of sexuality in the Marvel universe, their conversation is an earnest and thoughtful consideration of movie-viewing while queer.

Just in time for Easter (and a new series celebrating Al Pacino at The Quad), this episode honors an often-misunderstood subcategory of star: hams. Ranging from the amusing to glorious to cringeworthy, these actors call attention to themselves in ways that can overtake and redefine the films they're performing in. FC Digital Producer Violet Lucca is joined by Ashley Clark, senior programmer of cinema at BAM, and Michael Koresky, editorial director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, to chew over these over-the-top performers who produce a certain joy that a subtler actor can't. From cops pontificating about posteriors in Heat to Maine put-down artists in Dolores Claiborne, this gammon-fueled chat is one for the ages.

Food is versatile on film. Consider the ways it's used in Tampopo, Daisies, Babette's Feast, and The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover. This week's episode of The Film Comment Podcast contends with how its significance varies with each story—both in the film and for the viewer. Each FC contributor—Michael Koresky, Editorial Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center; Aliza Ma, Head Programmer at Metrograph; and Mayukh Sen, Staff Writer at Vice's Munchies—talks about one film that reminds them of cooking while growing up, and another that simply makes them hungry. A meal could evoke the power dynamics of desire, the familial elements of grief, or even a Marxist critique of capitalism… all while looking deee-licious.

Sleepovers offer kids a special opportunity to hang out with their friends largely unsupervised, free to chat and dream way after bedtime. The types of films that can be discovered—and obsessively re-watched—during the wee small hours of the morning can frighten, enlighten, or amuse, which is why it's a natural subject for this podcast. Film Comment Digital Producer Violet Lucca was joined by Nellie Killian, film programmer and FC Contributing Editor; Michael Koresky, Editorial Director at the Film Society of Lincoln Center; and Andrew Chan, Web Editor for the Criterion Collection. Pull up a pillow and listen!

Picking up where we left off last week, this week's episode travels further down cinephilic memory lane…or should we say, further forward. We check back in with the panel from Formative Filmmakers Part One—Nick Davis, professor of film, literature, and gender studies at Northwestern; Girish Shambu, author of The New Cinephilia and the September/October FC feature on immigration cinema “A Double Life”; Michael Koresky, Director of Editorial and Creative Strategy at the Film Society of Lincoln Center; and Violet Lucca, Film Comment Digital Producer and podcast host—to dive deep into their memories of another early favorite filmmaker. This time, the critics move away from their earliest fascinations toward the directors they found later in life, especially ones who might have redefined their preconceived notions about the medium. Héctor Babenco, Brian De Palma, Oliver Stone, and Abbas Kiarostami all crop up in this half.

There's nothing like first love, especially when it's projected on the silver screen. This week's episode of the podcast revisits formative cinematic fascinations—one director who kickstarted cinephilia at a young age, and another who reinvigorated and maybe even recontextualized the passion a bit later down the road. This week's participants—Nick Davis, professor of film, literature, and gender studies at Northwestern; Girish Shambu, author of The New Cinephilia and the September/October FC feature on immigration cinema “A Double Life”; Michael Koresky, Director of Editorial and Creative Strategy at the Film Society of Lincoln Center; and Violet Lucca, Film Comment Digital Producer and podcast host—took a breather between TIFF screenings to discuss their favorites, as well as how their emotions have evolved with (or been challenged by) the passage of time. Jane Campion, Manmohan Desai, Ingmar Bergman, and Quentin Tarantino make this half!

This Halloween, The Film Comment Podcast salutes a filmmaker whose work, according to the British Board of Film Classification, exemplified the “pornography of terror.” The panel—Ina Archer, media conservation and digitization assistant at the Smithsonian National African-American Museum of History and Culture; Margaret Barton-Fumo, longtime FC contributor and editor of Paul Verhoeven: Interviews; and Michael Koresky, Director of Editorial and Creative Strategy at the Film Society of Lincoln Center—convenes to remember the eclectic body of work of Tobe Hooper, who passed away earlier this year. Pick your poison, whether it's television static, or carnivorous crocodiles, or Stephen King miniseries, or meat hooks… and don't get us started on Lifeforce. As always, FC Digital Producer Violet Lucca moderates the conversation.

At the conclusion of the 55th New York Film Festival, Film Comment gathered together a panel of contributors and critics for one final live roundtable. For this “Festival Wrap” talk, the critics discussed festival favorites and curiosities, including films by Lucrecia Martel, Claire Denis, Ruben Östlund, Valeska Grisebach, and more. The critics weighing in this time around are Nellie Killian, programmer and Film Comment contributing editor; Michael Koresky, Director of Editorial and Creative Strategy at the Film Society of Lincoln Center; Aliza Ma, head of programming at Metrograph; and Wesley Morris, critic-at-large for the New York Times. As always, FC Digital Producer Violet Lucca moderates and shares her thoughts.

With every festival comes a new round of roundtables, so if you couldn't make it to this year's Toronto International Film Festival, you can still listen to this week's episode of the podcast and start planning ahead for when the lineup comes to a theater or streaming service near you. And luckily, the talking points of this year's TIFF are varied: the highly anticipated return of Lucrecia Martel; adventurous new films from familiar faces like Alexander Payne and Darren Aronofsky; and mesmerizing documentary work from Wang Bing, Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor. Film Comment Digital Producer Violet Lucca discusses and debates the selection with a panel of FC contributors, including Eric Hynes, associate curator of film at the Museum of the Moving Image; Aliza Ma, head of programming at Metrograph; Adam Nayman, Cinema Scope contributor; Nick Pinkerton, member of the New York Film Critics Circle; and Michael Koresky, Director of Editorial and Creative Strategy at the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

In May, we premiered our very first gift-giving episode. In it, each critic chose two films for another participant to experience for the first time. The first was a film that they'd be interested in hearing that person talk about; the second was a film that they thought the other might genuinely like. It didn't always work out that way, though. To continue the tradition, we offer a very special gift-giving episode in reverse order, and our resulting conversation runs the gamut from Andrew Dice Clay to Stephen Chow to Barbra Streisand. As you'll hear, sometimes it's difficult to distinguish which film was intended to amuse and which aimed to abuse, but each gift gave way to surprising appreciation and lively conversation. FC Digital Producer Violet Lucca is joined by Michael Koresky, Editorial Director at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Nick Pinkerton, regular contributor to Film Comment, and Aliza Ma, Head of Programming at Metrograph.

We expect that discrete scenes will play off of one another to create any given feature film, but what happens when one of these moments tugs the narrative in an unexpected direction? Sometimes the moment works, and sometimes it doesn't—and in the context of a bad film, the misfires might even indicate the possibility of a better film lurking within. There's also a certain how-did-this-happen fascination in finding a truly awful moment in an otherwise excellent film, suggesting that—surprise—perhaps art isn't a matter of perfection. This week's episode of The Film Comment Podcast considers these moments of dissonance and what alternate narrative realities and artistic impulses they might indicate… for better or for worse. To ruminate on these nuances, FC Digital Producer Violet Lucca asks this week's participants—Ashley Clark, programmer and FC contributor; Shonni Enelow, author of Method Acting and Its Discontents; and Michael Koresky, Director of Editorial and Creative Strategy at the Film Society of Lincoln Center—to bring in case studies of good scenes in bad films and bad scenes in good films.

Maybe it's the magnetic pull of a performance, a sequence, or a mood, but there are some movies that demand multiple rewatches. This episode of the podcast samples some films that keep our critics coming back, and here—staring at last into the abyss of compulsive movie love—they do some soul-searching as to why they resonate so strongly. Questions of childhood nostalgia or perfect timing enter the mix, as well as how personal responses to a film might shift over time. FC Digital Producer Violet Lucca offers a couple of “movie addictions” with Ashley Clark, regular Film Comment contributor; K. Austin Collins, staff writer for The Ringer; and Michael Koresky, Director of Creative and Editorial Strategy at the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

There's one alliterative movie musical that's dominated the recent conversational limelight, but less frequently discussed is how it operates within the genre. In this spirit, Michael Koresky, Director of Editorial and Creative Strategy at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, uses La La Land as a starting point to delve into the form of the movie musical in his May/June Film Comment feature "Working It" As a second act, this week's episode of the FC podcast expands the sample set of movie musicals—each panelist brings in a favorite classic musical, as well as a newer musical that pushes the form forward—to look at a wider variety of global cinemas, performance techniques, and ways of deploying music in the narrative. To talk it over—and sing it out—FC Digital Producer Violet Lucca joins Koresky; Andrew Chan, Web Editor for the Criterion Collection; and Eric Hynes, Associate Curator of Film at the Museum of the Moving Image.

To celebrate the 55th birthday of our magazine, we present a special gift-giving episode of the podcast. The gifts in this case are movies: as in a Secret Snowflake office gift exchange, each critic gave two films to another participant that the recipient hadn't seen before. One was a film that they'd be interested in hearing that person talk about; the other, a film that was just for fun. As you'll hear, some gifts were more appreciated than others—but each of the viewings yielded a fascinating discussion. Along with Film Comment Digital Producer Violet Lucca, the gift-givers/recipients included Michael Koresky, the Director of Editorial and Creative Strategy at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Nick Pinkerton, regular contributor to Film Comment, and Aliza Ma, head of programming at Metrograph.

This week's episode of the Film Comment podcast takes a sonic journey through this year's edition of Art of the Real, which runs through May 2 at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. First, FC Digital Producer Violet Lucca speaks with AotR co-programmer Rachael Rakes about searching for formally daring new nonfiction work, as well as the preconceptions people bring to concepts like "film," "entertainment," and "art." Then, Lucca delves into the stylistic and structural intricacies of three festival selections—Patric Chiha's Brothers of the Night, Robinson Devor's Pow Wow, and Shengze Zhu's Another Year—to explore the range of techniques and stories on view. Reflecting on these films are Rakes; Michael Koresky, Director of Editorial and Creative Strategy at the Film Society of Lincoln Center; and Genevieve Yue, critic and assistant professor at the New School's Eugene Lang College.

James Gray's The Lost City of Z, which opened last Friday, charts a course into the jungle alongside a character in search of transcendence. Shot on gorgeous 35mm and masterfully structured, it crafts a fittingly sublime cinematic texture to evoke its protagonist's quest. It's not uncommon to come across criticism identifying Gray as a "classicist," but what exactly does "classical cinema" mean? This question guides the conversation in this week's episode of the Film Comment podcast, featuring Kent Jones, critic, filmmaker, and Director of the New York Film Festival; and Michael Koresky, the Director of Editorial and Creative Strategy at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, who conducted a feature-length interview with Gray for our March/April issue. The discussion, moderated by FC Digital Producer Violet Lucca, touches on the nuances of the word "classical," the evolution of film grammar, the intersection of art and commerce, and other entries in Gray's singular body of work.

Horror films are unusually adept at giving mutable flesh to the terrors of adolescence, and Julia Ducournau's new film Raw is no exception. After a choice freshman-year hazing ritual involving a rabbit liver, the veterinary-school protagonist of Raw finds herself developing a taste for raw flesh, which she processes as she adjusts to life at school. Metaphorical monsters and latent taboo impulses like these are to be expected when it comes to horror-movie growing pains, and so this episode of The Film Comment Podcast revisits a few classics of coming-of-age horror. Pig's blood, werewolves, and the Eraserhead baby all appear in this conversation, featuring frequent FC contributors Margaret Barton-Fumo, editor of Paul Verhoeven: Interviews and author of a feature on Raw in the March/April issue; Michael Koresky, Director of Editorial and Creative Strategy at the Film Society of Lincoln Center; Nick Pinkerton, member of the New York Film Critics Circle; and Violet Lucca, FC Digital Producer and podcast moderator.

Jean-Pierre Léaud's familiar face graces the cover of the new March/April issue of Film Comment, waiting out his final days in Albert Serra's new film The Death of Louis XIV. As Yonca Talu observes in her feature on the film, "The film relies heavily on Jean-Pierre Léaud's vulnerable acting. Famous for his vibrant, unrestrained body language as the enfant terrible of the French New Wave, the legendary actor exists in a state of complete paralysis here, dependent on others to meet his basic needs." In some ways, she continues, the film serves as a symbolic conclusion to the Antoine Doinel cycle—Jean-Pierre Léaud's mere presence adds a layer of film-historical context to the film that might not otherwise be there. This week's episode of the Film Comment podcast explores the nuances of legacy, persona, and presence when it comes to acting. As with Léaud, we watch actors with enduring careers mature onscreen, developing their crafts and playing off of already formed associations that viewers might have with their earlier work. The panel—Shonni Enelow, English professor at Fordham and author of Method Acting and Its Discontents; Nick Pinkerton of the New York Film Critics Circle; Michael Koresky, Director of Editorial and Creative Strategy at the Film Society of Lincoln Center; and Violet Lucca, Film Comment Digital Producer—muses on the shifting modes of expression and physicality of performers like Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando, Gerard Depardieu, and Sissy Spacek.

Questions of legacy can rile up the creative juices in unexpected ways, especially when filmmakers who win a bit of success are allowed to dive headlong into their obsessions. In cases like these, equipped with higher budgets and greater creative freedom, a filmmaker sets out to make A Statement. At best, it's an opportunity to show off one's talents with unbridled freedom of expression; at worst, it can lapse into gratuitous excess. This episode of the Film Comment podcast takes up passion projects, particularly those in which filmmakers are given the "keys to the kingdom" after a commercial success. It can be an anxiety-inducing move—as the tagline for Zardoz, John Boorman's 1974 sci fi statement and Deliverance follow-up, aptly prophesied, "I have seen the future, and IT...DOESN'T...WORK." As always, Digital Editor Violet Lucca moderates, and is joined by FC mainstays Ashley Clark, film critic and programmer; Michael Koresky, Director of Editorial and Creative Strategy at the Film Society of Lincoln Center; and Nick Pinkerton, member of the New York Film Critics Circle.

There's no single way to celebrate the holiday season, but nearly every custom is centered on family and friends gathering together. In the first segment of this episode, Digital Editor Violet Lucca spoke with Julien Allen, Reverse Shot and Cinema Scope writer, to explore the British tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmas and the works of M.R. James. In the second, Lucca is joined by Michael Koresky, Director of Editorial and Creative Strategy, Film Society of Lincoln Center, Ina Archer, media artist and FC contributor, Margaret Barton-Fumo, FC columnist, to discuss horror movies set during this joyous time of year.

On the other side of the visibility hurdle, questions about queer representation in film persist. Is visibility enough? How much is an appropriate amount? Do all queer films need to support the cause? Where is the gay hotel in The Lobster? In this episode of The Film Comment Podcast, we discuss the reductive mainstream treatment of queer characters in Hollywood fare, how television affords more exploration of gay characters, the aesthetics of queer sex scenes, and the failure of such films to either address queerness directly or imagine queer characters on the sidelines. To elaborate upon ideas from Mark Harris' piece in the November/December issue on the paucity of LGBT visibility in Hollywood films, FC Digital Editor Violet Lucca was joined by Harris, K. Austin Collins of The Ringer, Farihah Zaman, filmmaker, critic and Production Manager for Field of Vision, and Michael Koresky, Director of Editorial and Creative Strategy at the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

2016 may be ill-suited to fond recollections, but the annual Film Comment Top 20 list does have plenty of good cheer to go around. This year's poll was conducted a bit differently, with a sharpened focus on Film Comment's contributors in order to better capture the magazine's voice. Even though the results will inevitably be skewed by factors like regional specificity and the availability of advance screenings for late-season films under consideration, polls aren't about securing an airtight appraisal of a year; they're about starting a critical discussion, which can just as much concern what was omitted as what was included. In this episode of The Film Comment Podcast, Digital Editor Violet Lucca takes stock of the results along with Nicolas Rapold, the magazine's Editor, and Michael Koresky, Director of Editorial and Creative Strategy at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. The conversation also covers films that didn't quite make the cut, what films the polls helped bring to light, and, of course, the best diner scenes in 2016 (no need to unwrap the silverware when you use your napkin).

In a podcast first, the podcast...repeats itself. But in a thematic way! To celebrate the end of Shocktober alongside Halloween, Peter returns to five different conversations exploring the horror genre in some way. First, Michael Koresky talks about the fear-inducing but plainly stylized The Seventh Victim, which turns classical continuity into a source of horror. Then, Kim Morgan explores trauma in the highly underrated rape drama Something Wild with Carroll Baker. Then it's back to Classical Hollywood with Farran Nehme-Smith's choice of Three Strangers, a supernatural film noir where a promise from a Chinese goddess only leads to doom for Geraldine Fitzgerald, Sydney Greetstreet, and poor Peter Lorre. Then the line between horror, comedy, documentary, and general "WTF" is truly bent with Matt Singer's choice of The Buried Secret of M. Night Shaymalan, which (inadvertently?) explores the limits and literalism of auteurism. Finally, we go to the purest horror film of all time with Angela Catalano's choice of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, a film that knows no boundaries when it comes to showing unadulterated malice. It's time to revisit our most frightening conversations! 0:00-3:52 Opening 5:16-19:03 The Seventh Victim with Michael Koresky 20:45-34:50 Something Wild with Kim Morgan 36:48-55:08 Three Strangers with Farran Nehme-Smith 56:11-59:13 Sponsorship Section 1:00:59-1:20:45 The Buried Secret of M. Night Shaymalan with Matt Singer 1:21:52-1:38:48 The Texas Chain Saw Massacre with Angela Catalano 1:38:53-1:40:48 Close

Is it possible to pinpoint what is so scary about an unsettling moment of a well-made horror film? It could be the image itself, but it could also be an unexpected sonic flourish, or an abrupt cut, or a lingering long take. A truly frightening horror film often derives its power from the uncanny specificity of its techniques or mise en scène, instilling a fundamental sense of unease that can't easily be shaken. With Halloween on the horizon, Film Comment Digital Editor Violet Lucca is joined by a panel of FC mainstays to reminisce about the haunting appeal of (often uncomfortably) memorable cursed images. Guests include Michael Koresky, Editorial Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center; Margaret Barton-Fumo, author of FC's Deep Cuts column; and Ina Archer, FC contributor and student at NYU's Moving Image Archive and Preservation Program.

Great directors can make crap. Whether because of a bad script, failing health, studio meddling, force majeure, or simply loss of artistic mojo, even the most enviable filmography can contain an irredeemable movie. But it's equally true that our least favorite directors can make something that we find invigorating and enjoyable. To explore these extremities of achievement, Digital Editor Violet Lucca convened a discussion about our personal favorite outliers—the worst films by people we love, and the best films by people we love... less. Joining us were Cristina Cacioppo, programmer at the Alamo Drafthouse Brooklyn; Ashley Clark and Nick Pinkerton, regular FILM COMMENT contributors; and Michael Koresky, Editorial Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

Though associated with heritage films—lush period films typically set in Britain's imperial past—producer Ismail Merchant, director James Ivory, and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala collaborated since the early 1960s on a variety of literary adaptations. Masterfully constructed, Merchant-Ivory films came to symbolize a certain type of prestige film—for better and worse. Perhaps the pinnacle of their collaboration was Howards End (92), based on the E. M. Forster novel about class and inheritance set in Edwardian England. In anticipation of the theatrical run of its new 4K restoration, Michael Koresky, Editorial Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Farran Smith Nehme, FILM COMMENT columnist and regular contributor for the New York Post, and Digital Editor Violet Lucca discussed the artful, complex adaptation and other Merchant-Ivory classics.

On June 28, 1969, following a police raid of the Greenwich Village LGBT bar Stonewall Inn, a riot broke out around the neighborhood that continued into the following evening. The upheaval is commonly treated as the beginning of the contemporary gay rights movement. As with many accounts of history, the clear demarcation—as if the lights were suddenly flipped on—doesn't entirely hold water under close scrutiny, but the Stonewall Riots have become a useful point of reference as well as a symbol. The Film Society's repertory series “A Clue to the New Direction: Queer Cinema Before Stonewall,” curated by FSLC programmer at larger Thomas Beard, takes these events as an opportunity to explore multiple histories of queer cinema through a variety of Hollywood, experimental, nonfiction, and foreign films. Digital Editor Violet Lucca discussed the films, and the history, with Mark Harris, film historian and columnist for Vulture; Michael Koresky, director of publications at the Metrograph Theater; and Manuel Betancourt, FC contributor.

In the spirit of fantasy football—or, you know, film criticism—FILM COMMENT contributors Michael Koresky (editor of Reverse Shot and director of publications of the Metrograph theater) and Ashley Clark (author of Facing Blackness) joined Digital Editor Violet Lucca to discuss the actors they feel deserve a renaissance.

It's that most wonderful time of year: Film Comment Selects! This edition of our annual series of eclectic, international, and avant-garde films offered a host of pleasures: a revival of Chantal Akerman's musical Golden Eighties, Terence Davies's exquisite period piece Sunset Song, new films by Benoît Jacquot, Hirokazu Kore-eda, and Alexei German Jr., and a special spotlight on the work of recently deceased Polish auteur Andrzej Żuławski. On Saturday, Film Comment's Violet Lucca and Nicolas Rapold assembled contributors Eric Hynes, Margaret Barton-Fumo, and Michael Koresky to discuss the work of Davies and Żuławski in front of a live audience during Film Comment Selects. The special edition was called Film Comment, Live!

What were the noteworthy performances of 2015? And what different kinds of performance are there? Mindful of actors that weren't nominated during awards season, FILM COMMENT's Violet Lucca and Nicolas Rapold sat down with regular FC contributor Nick Pinkerton and Michael Koresky, editor of Reverse Shot and director of publications of the upcoming Metrograph theater in New York, to talk about their favorite (and least favorite) acting moments.

A New York Film Festival Live talk, recorded October 9th, where Film Comment editors and contributors discussed this year's NYFF. Participants: Wesley Morris of The New York Times; Eric Hynes, critic, reporter, and Film Comment columnist; Michael Koresky, staff writer of The Criterion Collection and co-editor-in-chief of Reverse Shot; Aliza Ma, programmer, critic, and author of the Film Comment September/October cover story on The Assassin; Film Comment Senior Editor Nicolas Rapold; and Film Comment Digital Editor Violet Lucca.

It would probably take days to count the number of film publications that launched in the early years of the current millennium, but Reverse Shot, which Michael Koresky co-founded, has been a cornerstone of intelligent and dynamic film writing for over a decade now. Peter sits down with Michael to chart out the publication's origins, the voice the site created, Michael's own work with the Criterion Collection, and his upcoming book on British director Terrence Davies. Finally, the two examine the nothing-else-like-it horror film, The Seventh Victim, a Val Lewton produced existential drama that manages to bring chills down both their spines with one little phrase: "death is good."   0:00-1:36 Opening2:24-8:40 Establishing Shots - BAMCinemafest (Ellie Lumme and Something, Anything)9:25-54:02 Deep Focus - Michael Koresky56:48-1:11:49 Double Exposure - The Seventh Victim (Mark Robson)1:11:53-1:13:32 Close